WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Nidhi Madhavan as the winner of its 2013 Scholarship for Journalism Diversity. The award is for graduating high school seniors and totals as much as $10,000 over four years.

Madhavan, who graduated this year from Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois, will use the scholarship to study at Loyola University of Chicago.

"Ms. Madhavan has already shown that she's a reporter with a good nose for a story," said Andrea Snyder, chairman of the National Press Club's Scholarship Committee. "The National Press Club is honored help Nidhi work towards a career in journalism. We expect great things of her."

Madhavan's teachers describe her as insightful and inquisitive, and always prepared to tackle the toughest assignments.

"Whenever there is a question yearning to be asked, the asker will inevitably be Ms. Madhavan," said Alan Sanders, who taught Nidhi in an AP rhetorical analysis class.

An American of Indian descent born to immigrant parents, Madhavan has witnessed a world unfamiliar to most of her peers. During three summers living with her family in Mexico City, she became aware of the contrast between the privileged wealthy and the working class without electricity.

As a reporter for her high school newspaper, the "RoundUp," and a local magazine, the "Quintessential Barrington," Madhavan has written about the experience of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim students during Christian holidays and the trials of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Helping people "make themselves heard brought me indescribable joy," Madhavan said in her application for the scholarship.

The scholarship, set up to further diversity in journalism, includes a one-time $500 book stipend in the memory of the late Ellen Masin Persina, a club member.

Past winners include Sean Hurd of San Francisco in 2012 and Beatrice Dupuy of Cooper City, Florida.